"Cloth epaulettes on left shoulder of infantry???" Topic

Can you guys explain to me how these worked exactly and why they are on some AWI minis. and not others?

I ran into some uncertainty because on all the Foundry and Perry metal minis. the cloth epaulettes appear to have not been sculpted on the models at all.

However on the Perry plastics, the cloth epaulettes are sculpted on both the American and British infantry boxes.

I was wondering if the reason they aren't seen on the metals was because most were at the shoulder where the musket is covering that part of the shoulder on the model. But I found out no, because other models where the musket is off the shoulder the epaulette is also not there.

Also, I noticed that in a lot of the popular military art the epaulettes are indeed shown on the infantry's coats left shoulder. Sometimes they are the color of the coat and sometimes they are the color of the coat facings.

I was also wondering, could it be that soldiers had the option of simply slinging the cartrdidge pouch OVER the cloth epaulette and ignoring it altogether? It seems to be more ornamental than functional, having the shoulder belt pass under it seems of little actual purpose.

For the Americans:

link

I am not clear if you are asking about both epaulettes and shoulder straps.

I think I may have misdescribed what I'm talking about. I understand that higher ranks had epaulettes on their right shoulder.

I'm talking about what appears to be rank and file epaulettes on the LEFT shoulder, that appear to unbutton to allow the cartridge pouch belt to pass through.

The left shoulders on these British soldiers in this Troiani painting. Every soldier has one, it's not a rank thing at all.

link

What is that strip of cloth passing over the rtridge pouch shoulder belt?

That's why I mentioned that Perry puts them on every single model in the infantry boxes, so it's not a rank thing.

It's a shoulder strap. They were used to keep the cross belts in place.

Maybe I used the wrong term, maybe they're cloth "keepers"?

It's similiar to like what some New York state issue jackets had in the Civil War.

@79thPa,

Ahh ok, now we're getting somewhere. So AWI rank and file regimental coats usually had those? That's why I was wondering why the Foundry and Perry metals don't seem to have them but the plastics do. That doesn't make sense to me.

I guess I wasn't clear…the reason I'm asking about this at all is to find out if the shoulder straps are something I should be painting on every rank and file coat or not.

That's also why I mentioned that some shoulder straps are the color of the coat itself, but others are the color of the coat FACINGS.

Would all the British shoulder straps be red, or would some be the facing colors? Is there historical record that mentions this? Same question applies to continental coats…

British should straps (keepers) would be the same color as the coat.

If you were a corporal, you would have a white worsted epaulette on the right shoulder.

While there is a lot less consistency among the Doodle uniforms, they also used similar rank markings in some regiments.

I have a very casual attitude on this. If the shoulder straps are there I paint them. If not I do not worry much about them. It is not worth the effort of creating shoulder straps the same color as the uniform when they won't stand out except upon close inspection.